Independents facing an identity crisis over Wallace’s exile

The exile of Mick Wallace from his former alliance with other Independents has only prolonged the identity crisis of the technical group.

Having purged him because of the embarrassment caused by his tax affairs and “hit man” comments, the group has demonstrated a willingness to be accountable for individual members — thus moving into the realm of a political party.

And now it is divided over whether it has allowed itself become something far more than just, well, technical.

“We have been pressured into responding in the way that a political party would respond,” said Dublin Central Independent and deputy whip of the group, Maureen O’Sullivan. “We should never have gone down that road.”

Most TDs in the technical group swept into the Dáil with huge mandates from a disillusioned electorate craving a new approach to politics.

And despite their wide ideological differences, they managed to organise themselves effectively in the first year, providing robust opposition.

But frictions began at the start of the summer, when they struggled to formulate an appropriate response to revelations about Mr Wallace’s unpaid Vat bill and €2.1m settlement with Revenue.

They had, after all, been the ones shouting across the Dáil at the Government, so they could not stand by one of their own.

Mr Wallace left the group at the start of June. At the following meeting of the technical group, there was a row over whether he should still be allowed committee membership.

His close ally, Clare Daly, told other members that the arrangement was only temporary and he would return to the group.

But, at a meeting this week, it was agreed that he should not be allowed back into the fold.

Differences between the 15 members of the group on the issue were portrayed as personality-driven, a row between those who were still loyal to him and those who were not.

But the argument veered into a more serious issue about the direction the group is taking.

“We are all independent, from diverse backgrounds, and with diverse philosophies,” said Ms O’Sullivan

“I’m not accountable for anyone else in that technical group and they are not accountable for me. So anything I do is not a reflection on them.”

Others used the exact same argument to justify not allowing him back in, saying they could not have a situation where Mr Wallace was going on radio berating them for their failure to show loyalty to him.

Another decision at Tuesday’s meeting — to stop the practice of granting Mr Wallace speaking time — has highlighted the need for Dáil reform.

Mr Wallace is now dependent on the generosity of other TDs to gift him their time, or the good will of party whips — something that is likely to be in short supply.

He is now in a position where he cannot raise priority questions or table private members’ motions.

With one of the highest votes in the country in the 2011 general election, the Wexford TD has a mandate but no mechanism to exercise it. This shows up the Dáil’s rules as being democratically flawed.

The technical group whip, Catherine Murphy, has written to the Ceann Comhairle asking for a change of the rules so that TDs can speak of their own right.

Ms O’Sullivan said this issue has been raised many times before. She said she will be giving Mr Wallace some of her time because she believes a TD with a mandate has the right to speak.

She was just one of three Independents in the last Dáil, having been elected in June 2009 in a by-lection caused by the death of Tony Gregory.

“We had absolutely no speaking rights, no access to priority questions, and I was eventually allowed on to the Foreign Affairs committee because there was no legislation involved,” she said.

The only time they could contribute was by going “cap in hand to a political party and beg for their crumbs” or when Finian McGrath “jumped up and down in the chamber and said we wanted to contribute”.

Ms O’Sullivan said: “The system is geared towards political parties and, let’s face it, they do not want to facilitate Independent members.”

And she is worried that the technical group is heading in that direction, by exceeding what it is allowed to do under Oireachtas rules, or standing orders.

“They state that anybody that is not aligned to a political party may form a technical group and the technical group does not have the power to expel somebody.”

She wants them to go back and look at what a technical group is and “stick with that” using the system for speaking time, priority questions and “technical” purposes.